Kate Forsyth is one of Australia’s most treasured storytellers. On today’s edition of What Katie Read, she gives us the rundown on all of the best books she’s been reading lately …
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death
by Maggie O’Farrell
Maggie O’Farrell is an Irish-born, British-raised novelist whose books I have often heard recommended but have never read. A friend of mine raved about I Am, I Am, I Am on twitter and I bought the book straightaway – partly because I trust my friend’s judgement and partly because I’ve often thought about writing a memoir about my own encounters with death, but always concluded that the subject matter was too dark and too difficult, and no-one would want to read such a thing anyway.
I was obviously wrong, because I Am, I Am, I Am reached No. 1 on the Sunday Times bestseller list, scored numerous rave reviews, and was shortlisted for quite a few awards. And although it is a dark subject, this book is utterly beautiful and life-affirming – Maggie O’Farrell writes with luminous grace, self-deprecating humour, and true poignancy about life and death and love and fear:
‘There is nothing unique or special in a near-death experience. They are not rare; everyone, I would venture, has had them, at one time or another, perhaps without even realising it. The brush of a van too close to your bicycle, the tired medic who realises that a dosage ought to be checked one final time, the driver who has drunk too much and is reluctantly persuaded to relinquish the car keys, the train missed after sleeping through an alarm, the aeroplane not caught, the virus never inhaled, the assailant never encountered, the path not taken. We are, all of us, wandering about in a state of oblivion, borrowing our time, seizing our days, escaping our fates, slipping through loopholes, unaware of when the axe may fall.’
The title comes from a quote from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar: ‘I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.’ It’s the perfect quote for this extraordinarily beautiful book, and Maggie O’Farrell uses it with keen wit and flair. Must. Now. Read. More. Of. Maggie. O’Farrell.
Buy it here
The Silence of the Girls
by Pat Barker
I’ve been reading a lot of books set in Greece in recent months, including books by Mary Renault and Madeline Miller which are inspired by Ancient Greek myth and the great Homeric poems ‘The Odyssey’ and ‘The Iliad’. I’d seen reviews that compared The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker to both of these amazing writers, and so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m very glad I did as it’s a wonderful book, and I’m keen to read more by Pat Barker now.
‘The Iliad’ is famously the story of a bitter and futile war between the Greeks and the Trojans, sparked by the abduction of Helen, whose “face launched a thousand ships.” It is mainly concerned with the violent struggles between the heroes of either side, in particular Achilles, Greece’s greatest warrior, and Hector, a prince of Troy. Few women are mentioned in the poem, apart from Helen and a few goddesses, but Pat Barker has chosen to tell the story of one of those women.
Briseis was the young queen of a neighbouring kingdom to Troy, until Achilles invaded her country, sacked the city and murdered her husband and brothers. The women are all taken as prizes of war. Briseis is forced to become Achilles’s concubine, and so is enslaved by the man she most hates and fears in the world.
Held captive in the Greek war camp, Briseis is witness to the long brutal siege of Troy and the heartless machinations of men and gods. In a world where women are seen only as objects or commodities, she must find a way to build a new life for herself – if she can survive.
Pat Barker’s writing is simple, luminous, and compelling – a wonderful read!
Buy it here
A Dance With Fate
by Juliet Marillier
A Dance with Fate is the second book in Juliet Marillier’s new historical fantasy series, Warrior Bards. As always with her books, it is a beguiling mix of action, romance and magic, set in an ancient Celtic world where the Otherworld presses up close to the ordinary human world. I love Juliet Marillier’s books – they are full of a lyrical fairy-tale quality and a quiet shining wisdom about the importance of justice, compassion, peace, and the care of the natural world. They are a wonderful antidote to anxiety, fear, and exhaustion – I often re-read them when I need a balm for my wounded soul.
At the heart of the Warrior Bards series is a young woman named Liobhan who is both a strong fighter and a skilled musician, and her journey to be accepted as a warrior of Swan Island. Other major characters are her beloved foster-brother Brocc, a talented harpist who has married a faery queen, and an enigmatic noble named Dau, who is the main rival to Liobhan’s dream of acceptance as a warrior. In this segment of the saga, Dau has been accidentally blinded by Liobhan. His brutal, manipulative brother demand she works off her debt to him as a bond servant for a year, a role which is little better than a slave. It is not long before Liobhan realises that she is caught in a web of violence, deceit and dark magic, and it will take all her strength and wits to escape.
A gorgeous romantic read! Can’t wait for the next one.
Buy it here
The Silent Patient
by Alex Michaelides
I love a good psychological thriller, and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides has been gaining a lot of buzz. The premise really intrigued me – a psychologist is obsessed with a young woman who shot her husband dead and then never speaks another word. I’ve always been interested in selective mutism, having had troubles of my own in this area, and so I was eager to read a book which features it.
The book is told from the first-person point-of-view of the psychologist, Theo Faber. He takes a job at The Grove, a secure psychiatric hospital in London, in the hope of being able to work with this silent patient – even though The Grove is in financial trouble and the job is perhaps not very secure.
Alicia Berenson has not responded well to treatment. Despite all attempts to reach her, she remains silent. Before she killed her husband, she was a well-known artist. There were no signs of any psychological cracks – she was beautiful, talented, and seemingly happily married. No-one can understand what led her to tie her husband up, then shoot him five times in the face. It’s seemingly inexplicable.
Theo’s journey to fathom the dark depths of Alicia’s psyche is told in brief, swift, compelling chapters, occasionally interspersed with excerpts from her hidden diary. The novel is literally unputdownable – I don’t think I’ve ever raced through a book so fast. And it has a cracker of a plot twist. I usually see such narrative surprises a mile off, but this one took my breath away. Absolutely brilliant!
Buy it here
Howl’s Moving Castle
by Diana Wynne Jones
Diana Wynne Jones was one of my favourite authors growing up, but for some reason I never read Howl’s Moving Castle before – even though it’s one of her most famous and celebrated books. So I thought I’d address this omission in my reading, and snuggled down with a copy.
It’s an utterly charming children’s fantasy set in a magical world not unlike our own. The heroine Sophie thinks she’s utterly ordinary, and hasn’t much expectations of her future. One day, she is cursed by the wicked Witch of the Waste and finds herself turned into an old woman, with all the aches and pains one would expect. She doesn’t want anyone to know, and so runs away. Eventually she takes shelter in the Wizard Howl’s moving castle, even though he is rumoured to eat young girls’ hearts. Sophie figures he won’t want her heart, which is now old and faulty. Having always been timid and shy, Sophie also decides she might as well speak up for herself too, since old women are allowed to be ornery and outspoken. A series of funny misadventures follows, as Sophie gradually works out that she has powerful magic of her own, and sets out to defeat the Witch of the Waste. A quite delightful book from Diana Wynne Jones, as always.
Buy it here
Something Beautiful Happened
by Yvette Manessis Corporon
I picked up this book because I’m currently working on a novel set in Greece during World War II, and am interested in reading more stories about that terrible time.
Yvette Manessis Corporon grew up listening to the story of how her grandparents helped save the lives of a Jewish family on their small Greek island of Erikousa, near Corfu. After the war, her grandparents moved to the US and lost contact with the family whom they saved. As she grows up, Yvette begins to wonder about what happened to them – they moved away too but no-one knows where. Her work as a journalist means Yvette is used to searching out stories. She begins to dig, and runs into many dead-ends, but becomes more and more determined to find out what happened to them. She hopes the family, who lost so much, has found peace and happiness, and given birth to new generations.
During her long search, a terrible tragedy in her own family makes it clear to her that hatred and prejudice and evil still exist in the world – her husband’s cousin loses both her father and her son in a neo-Nazi shooting attack. The shock and sorrow and disbelief at this senseless act of violence reverberates throughout her family and life, and makes the search for the descendants of the family her ancestors saved seem even more important.
The two stories interweave together, in a powerful and moving story of courage, kindness and faith, that had me in tears. A really surprising and heartfelt memoir that shows that the past lives in us still.
Buy it here
A Universe of Sufficient Size
by Miriam Sved
A friend gave me this book because she thought that I would love it, and she was right.
A Universe of Sufficient Size is a beautiful novel that centres on a group of five young Jewish mathematicians in Budapest, Hungary, at the outbreak of the Second World War. Interwoven with their tale of friendship, love, and struggle to survive is the story of one of the women’s daughter and grandson in contemporary Australia, as they deal with the shadows of her past. The title reflects the powerful use of mathematical philosophies throughout the narrative, but do not let this scare you off – I struggle with the simplest of numerical equations, but still found the mathematics in the book quite fascinating.
Miriam Sved was inspired by the true story of her grandmother, mathematician Marta Wachsberger, and I found this historical basis of the story very poignant. It’s also beautifully written – clever, lyrical and heartfelt. Highly recommended.
Buy it here
Kate Forsyth
Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel aged seven and has now sold more than a million books worldwide. Her new novel, The Blue Rose, is inspired by the true story of the quest for a blood-red rose, moving between Imperial China and France during the ‘Terror’ of the French Revolution. Other novels for adults include Beauty in Thorns, a Pre-Raphaelite reimagining of Sleeping Beauty, Bitter Greens, which won the 2015 American Library Association award for Best Historical Fiction; and The Beast’s Garden, a stunning retelling of the Grimms’ Beauty and The Beast set in Nazi Germany.
Kate’s books for children include the collection of feminist fairy-tale retellings, Vasilisa the Wise & Other Tales of Brave Young Women, illustrated by Lorena Carrington, and the fantasy series The Impossible Quest. Named one of Australia’s Favourite 15 Novelists, Kate has a BA in literature, a MA in creative writing and a doctorate in fairy tale studies, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. She is a direct descendant of Charlotte Waring Atkinson, the author of the first book for children ever published in Australia.
Find out more about Kate Forsyth here.
The Blue Rose
Moving between Imperial China and France during the ‘Terror’ of the French Revolution and inspired by the true story of the quest for a blood-red rose.
Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at the Chateau de Belisama-sur-le-Lac in Brittany, for her father, the Marquis de Ravoisier, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the chateau’s orchards, gardens and fields an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan the chateau’s new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer...
REVIEW: A Dance With Fate by Juliet Marillier 
Read a Q&A with Juliet Marillier!
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